an introduction to the history of the principal kingdoms

and states of europe

natural l aw and en l ightenmen t cl a s s ic s

Knud HaakonssenGeneral Editor

Samuel Pufendorf

natural l aw and enl ightenment cl as s ic s

An Introduction to the History of the Principal

Kingdoms and States of Europe

Samuel Pufendorf

Translated by Jodocus Crull (1695)

Edited and with an Introduction by Michael J. Seidler

The Works of Samuel Pufendorf

l i b e r t y f u n dIndianapolis

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Frontispiece: The portrait of Samuel Pufendorf is to be found at the Law Faculty of the University of Lund, Sweden, and is based on a photoreproduction by Leopoldo Iorizzo. Reprinted by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication DataPufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von, 1632–1694

[Einleitung zu der Historie der vornehmsten Reicheund Staaten so itziger Zeit in Europa sich befi nden.

English]An introduction to the history of the principal

kingdoms and states of EuropeSamuel Pufendorf; translated by Jodocus Crull (1695);edited and with an introduction by Michael J. Seidler.page cm. (Natural law and Enlightenment classics)

Includes bibliographical references and index.isbn 978- 0- 86597- 512- 5 (hardcover: alk. paper)

isbn 978- 0- 86597- 513- 2 (pbk.: alk. paper)1. Europe—History. I. Crull, Jodocus, –1713? translator.

II. Seidler, Michael J., 1950– editor. III. Title.d103.p97 2013

940—dc23 2013003026

liberty fund, inc.8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-1684

contents

Editor’s Introduction ix

A Note on the Text xli

Acknowledgments xlvii

Dedicatory Epistle (by Jodocus Crull) 3

Preface to the Reader (by Samuel Pufendorf ) 5

List of Chapters 11

an introduction to the history of the principal kingdoms and states of europe 13

Appendix 1. A Brief Publication History of the Introduction and Its Descendants 603

Appendix 2. A List of Early Modern Editions and Translations 615

Appendix 3. Editions and Translations: Specifi c Publication Dates (Chart 1) 629

Appendix 4. Editions and Translations: Temporal Overview (Chart 2) 635

Bibliography 641

The Original “Table” of Contents Index 661

Index to the Modern Edition 677

ix

ed itor’s introduct ion

In the early twentieth century when his main natural law works were reissued in the Carnegie Classics series, Samuel Pufendorf was known as a theorist of international law; toward the latter end of the century, when he became more familiar to the Anglo- American world, he was studied mainly as a moral and political theorist. However, in his own time in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Pufendorf was known and respected primarily as a historian. Though these roles may now seem distinct and the subject of diff erent professional litera-tures, they intersected or coincided in that earlier period. Thus, con-trary to interpretations that segment Pufendorf ’s life and thought in either topical or temporal ways, or that seek to prioritize one or another function, his roles as international jurist, natural lawyer, and historian must be seen in active relation to one another. They are present at all stages of his career.

Samuel Pufendorf was born in 1632, at the height of the Thirty Years’ War, to a Lutheran pastor in Lower Saxony whose family experienced fi rsthand some of the terrors of that formative period in European his-tory. When he died in 1694, he was royal historian to both Sweden and Brandenburg, an ennobled international fi gure whose services were also desired in Vienna to record the history of the empire and its Turk-

1. Pufendorf (1927a), (1927b), (1931a), (1931b), (1934a), (1934b).2. Krieger (1965); Denzer (1972); Tuck (1981), (1987); Schneewind (1987), (1998);

Haakonssen (1996).3. Döring (1995), “Einleitung” to “Epistolae duae . . . ,” in Pufendorf (1995),

p. 460; and Döring (1994), p. 214 (on the funeral sermons after Pufendorf ’s death).4. Krieger (1965), pp. 201– 3, 209; Meinecke (1925), pp. 286– 88.

x editor’s introduction

ish wars. His older brother, Esaias (1628– 87), who often furthered his career and remained close despite eventual political diff erences, was an experienced and well- connected European diplomat; and Samuel him-self held the posts of secretary to Hedwig Eleonora—widow of Charles Gustav, dowager queen of Sweden, and mother of Charles XI—and of privy councillor in Berlin. Throughout his career, he maintained close ties to members of the Swedish ruling class, whose sons he taught during his university periods at Heidelberg (1660– 68) and Lund (1668– 76). In-deed, as a historian who emphasized the importance of modern history, Pufendorf was throughout his life appropriately in the thick of things.

Like Esaias before him, Samuel began his formal education in 1645 at the ducal school at Grimma, where his studies included the Greek and Latin classics, especially the ancient historians. This was also a per-sonal passion that he indulged voraciously on the side and that would provide a basis for his broad historical and political understanding. He continued his study of classics, or philology, at the University of Leipzig (1650– 58) where, an early biographer reports, his favorite sub-jects were “divine and natural law” and the associated study of “history, politics, and civil law.” Equally important at the time was his member-ship in the Collegium Anthologicum, an extracurricular academic soci-ety where he gave many lectures on historical topics, including church history and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1658 Samuel followed Esaias into Swedish service by becoming tutor to the household of Peter Ju-lius Coyet, Sweden’s envoy to Denmark. The renewed war between these countries led to an eight months’ long imprisonment in Copen-hagen, during which Pufendorf composed the Elements of Universal Jurisprudence (1660), his fi rst and structurally most formal natural law

5. Döring (1996b), p. 92, note 57; letter to von Seilern (March 5, 1690), Pufendorf (1996), 175, p. 261, and p. 263, note 1; Hamburgische Bibliotheca. . . . Die zehnte Cen-turia, Art. 37, p. 128; and Moraw (1962), pp. 168– 69, 172.

6. Adlemansthal [Dahlmann], “Vita, Fama, et Fata Literaria Pufendorfi ana . . . ,” in Samuels Freyhrn. von Puff endorff kurtzer doch gründlicher Bericht von dem Zu-stande des H. R. Reichs teutscher Nation . . . (Leipzig: Gleditsch und Weidmann, 1710), 3, p. 650.

7. See Pufendorf (1995), pp. 21– 86; Döring (1992b), pp. 165– 68, 174; and Döring (1988).

editor’s introduction xi

work. Notably, that same experience also led to a lesser- known political tract, Gundaeus Baubator Danicus (1659), which explored the status and rights of ambassadors in the context of international law.

The Elements was published in the Netherlands, where Pufendorf was secretary to Coyet while also studying at Leiden University and ed-iting several classical texts. Its dedication to Karl Ludwig, the reinstated Elector Palatine, soon secured for him a chair at Heidelberg in philol-ogy and international law (ius gentium). There he cultivated close ties with a number of young Swedish aristocrats, in part through a series of important theses (written by himself and defended by students), which were later included in his Select Academic Dissertations [Dissertationes academicae selectiores] (1675). These early pieces focused on topics (for example, patriotism, systems of states, irregular states) that remained central to his thought and elaborated the bare theoretical framework of the Elements through a rich analysis of historical examples, thereby creating the foundation for his main natural law treatise, On the Law of Nature and of Nations (1672). At Heidelberg, Pufendorf also composed a historically based justifi cation of the Elector’s disputed population politics (the Wildfangstreit), he wrote a short history of the fi fteenth- century Albanian folk hero George Kastrioti Skanderbeg (who had led a successful resistance against the Turks), and he produced (under the pseudonym Severinus de Monzambano) his notoriously irreverent, or

8. Pufendorf (1995), pp. 125– 55.9. See Döring (2006) on Pufendorf ’s Heidelberg period.10. These included Otto Wilhelm von Königsmark, who later secured for Pufen-

dorf the post of secretary to Ulrike Eleonora. Königsmark entered imperial service in the 1680s during the joint European eff ort against the Turks, and Pufendorf ’s history of Skanderbeg (see note 12, below) was dedicated to him. See Döring’s bio-graphical entry in Pufendorf (1996), p. 399.

11. Prodromus solidae et copiosae confutationis mox secuturae scripti . . . (Heidel-berg, 1665), in Pufendorf (1995), pp. 187– 93; and the Introduction to Pufendorf (2007), pp. 11– 12.

12. Georgii Castriotae Scanderbeg vulgo dicti Historia, compendio tradita (Stade, 1664). This piece indirectly supported the empire’s defensive war against the Otto-mans, which occupied the imperial diet of Regensburg (1664), and it was com-missioned by Karl Ludwig or Johann Philipp von Schönborn, elector of Mainz. However, it was not published until 1684, after the Turkish attack on Vienna (1683). See Döring (1992a), pp. 200– 201, and Palladini (1999a), 1346, p. 316.

xii editor’s introduction

realistic, account of the Holy Roman Empire, The Present State of Ger-many (1667), which also foreshadowed many of his later works, includ-ing the Introduction.

In 1668 Pufendorf left Heidelberg for a chair in natural law at the newly established University of Lund, in Sweden. There he completed On the Law of Nature and of Nations and its shorter pedagogical com-pendium, The Whole Duty of Man (1673), vigorously defending them against the fi erce attacks of Lutheran and Neo- Aristotelian critics in both Sweden and Germany. When renewed hostilities with Denmark forced the closure of the university in 1676, he became royal Swedish historian in Stockholm. In that capacity he produced two long histories of Sweden, including Twenty- six Books of Commentary on Swedish Af-fairs, from the Expedition of Gustavus Adolphus into Germany to the Ab-dication of Christina (1686), and its sequel, Eight Books of Commentary on the Achievements of Charles Gustav, King of Sweden, which appeared posthumously in 1696 even though it was essentially completed when Pufendorf was loaned to Brandenburg in 1688. In Berlin he quickly completed his Nineteen Books on the Achievements of Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg (1695) and then turned to the unfi n-ished (and, until 1784, unpublished) fragment, Three Books of Commen-tary on the Achievements of Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, which is notable for its detailed account of the English Revolution of 1688.

While still in Sweden, Pufendorf collected the lectures on European history that he had given at Lund, and perhaps Heidelberg, and is-sued them in 1682 as An Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe. Ironically in view of its immediate suc-cess, this was a forced publication. Because an unauthorized Swedish translation based on circulating student manuscripts had appeared in 1680, Pufendorf was compelled to publish an offi cial version in order to assert his authorship (“than to suff er that another should rob me of it”). To remedy the absence of a separate chapter on Sweden in

13. Seidler (1996).14. Preface, p. 6. Martinière, “Eloge historique” (1753), p. xv, says that the In-

troduction was circulated in manuscript form to the young people Pufendorf was teaching, and Siebenkäs (1790), p. 52, that Pufendorf was forced to publish.

editor’s introduction xiii

the manuscript version—whose pedagogical aim had been to educate young Swedes about the rest of Europe—Pufendorf followed up with his Continued Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe, Wherein the History of the Kingdom of Sweden and Its Wars with Foreign Crowns Are Especially Described (1686), a work as long as the much wider ranging original. That same year, before leav-ing Sweden for Brandenburg, Pufendorf also issued his Scandinavian Quarrel (Eris Scandica), a collection of polemical essays defending his natural law theory against a variety of critics. And in Berlin, before his death in 1694, he published two important works on religion that addressed church- state relations, religious unifi cation, and toleration. At the same time he was preparing the second edition of The Present State of Germany, which he had substantially revised to refl ect current European conditions.

The Introduction—Background, Content, and Reaction

Pufendorf ’s original Introduction consisted of a preface and twelve chapters, each devoted to a diff erent European state. The relatively short chapter I pays tribute to the ancient historians as “equally use-full and pleasant,” and continues to adhere formally to the traditional four- monarchies scheme (Assyria, Persia, Macedonia, and Rome) asso-ciated with Daniel 2:31– 44. However, that framework is not employed in the unifi ed, millenarian fashion of universal history, and Pufendorf subjects each ancient empire (especially Rome) to the same realistic, reason- of-state analysis as the rest of the work. Subsequent chapters

15. Pufendorf (2002b) and (2002c).16. This comment is from the Preface, pp. 5–6, which also says: “. . . that the

History of later Times is so much neglected is a great Mistake and want of Under-standing in those to whom the Education of Youth is committed; for I lay down this as a Principle, That we are to study those things in our Youth, which may prove usefull to us hereafter, when we come to riper Years, and apply our selves to Business. Now I cannot for my life apprehend, what great Benefi t we can expect to receive from Cornelius Nepos, Curtius, and . . . , as to our Modern Aff airs, tho’ we had learned them by heart, . . .”

xiv editor’s introduction

all focus on the supposedly neglected but more useful study of mod-ern history (i.e., the recent history of modern states), where the fourth monarchy—the Holy Roman or German Empire (chapter VIII)— appears merely as one political entity among others. The twelfth chap-ter, which is devoted to the papacy or the court of Rome, had appeared separately already in 1679 under the pseudonym of Basileus Hypereta and was neatly folded into the larger work. The missing thirteenth chapter, as it were, as found in the later English and Latin versions, was not by Pufendorf himself but is most likely Crull’s condensation of the Continued Introduction.

According to the Preface, Pufendorf ’s respective accounts of in-dividual states were based on their own historians, which made for some diff ering perspectives that he explicitly chose not to “reconcile or decide.” Moreover, as literary historians report, he relied mainly on one main source in each case, including the following authors: Mari-ana (Spain), Vasconcellus (Portugal), Vergilius (England), Aemylius (France), Grotius (United Provinces), Simler (Switzerland), Lehmann (Germany), Pontanus (Denmark), Neugebauer (Poland), Herbsteiner (Russia), and Messenius (Sweden—in the Continued Introduction).

17. [Pufendorf, Samuel] Basilii Hyperetae historische und politische Beschreibung der geistlichen Monarchie des Stuhls zu Rom (Leipzig: Wittigau; Franckfurt: Knoch, 1679). Niceron (1732), p. 284, does not identify the changes made to this work when it was incorporated into the Introduction in 1682. He notes, though, the appearance of a similar (also anonymous) work a few years later, Theodosii Gibellini Caesaro- Papia (Franckfurt, 1684), which some had attributed to Esaias Pufendorf. This latter work saw further editions in 1691 and 1720. Adlemansthal (1710), p. 800, notes its close similarity to Basilii Hyperetae. . . .

18. See Appendix 1, Publication History, pp. 606–7 (at notes 17–20) below.19. Preface, p. 7.20. Meusel (1782), p. 198, probably drawing on Ludwig, “Eulogium” (1721),

pp. 480– 81.21. Juan de Mariana [1536– 1624], Historiae de rebus Hispaniae libri XXX, editio

nova, ab auctore recensita, & aucta . . . (Mainz, 1619); Diogo Mendes de Vascon-cellos [1523– 1599], Deliciae Lusitano- Hispanicae: in quibus continentur De magnitu-dine Hispanici Imperii relatio: novi orbis regionum a Lusitanis subactarum brevis de-scriptio. De Lusitania ceterae Hispaniae adiuncta historia (Cologne, 1613); Polydorus Vergilius [ca. 1470– 1555], Anglicae historiae libri vigintisex, ab ipso autore postremùm iam recogniti, adque amussim, salva tamen historiae veritate, expoliti Simon Grynaeus lectori (Basel, 1546); Paulus Aemilius Veronensis [ca. 1455– 1529], De rebus gestis Fran-

editor’s introduction xv

The controversial account of the papacy relied on “an anonymous Frenchman” and, perhaps, a student manual on church history by the Lutheran theologian Hieronymus Kromayer, who had taught the sub-ject at Leipzig during Pufendorf ’s residency there. Basileus Hypereta’s preface (1679)—not transferred to the Introduction—also refers to church histories by M. Antonius de Dominis and Petrus Suavis but deems these unhelpful because of their focus on doctrinal disputes and clerical matters of little interest to politicians. In general, the Intro-

corum, a Pharamundo primo rege usq[ue] ad Carolum octavum libri X, editio ultima superioribus emendatior (Basel, 1601); Hugo Grotius [1583– 1645], Annales et historiae de rebus Belgicis (Amsterdam: Blaev, 1657); Josias Simler [1530– 76], De Helvetiorum republica, pagis, foederatis, stipendiariis oppidis, praefecturis, foederibus tum domesticis, eorumque origine ac legibus, tum externis, pagorumque singulorum privata reipublicae ratione, libri duo. Quibus etiam Helvetiorum res gestae, domi forisque, a Rodolphi ad Caroli V. Imperium exponuntur . . . (Paris, 1577); Christoph Lehmann [1568– 1638], Chronica der freyen Reichs- Statt Speyer: . . . Zum andern, von Anfang und Auff richtung deß Teutschen Reichs . . . (Franckfurt am Mayn: Daniel Fievet, 1662); Johannes Isaac Pontanus [1571– 1639], Rerum Danicarum historia libris X (Hardervici Gelrorum, 1631); Salomon Neugebauer [1611– 54], Historia rerum Polonicarum concinnata . . . libris decem (Hannover, 1618); Sigismund von Herberstein [ca. 1486– 1566], Rerum Moscoviticarum commentarii . . . quibus Russiae ac Metropolis eius Moscoviae descrip-tio, chorographicae tabulae, religionis indicatio, modus excipiendi & tractandi oratores, itineraria in Moscoviam duo, & alia quaedam continentur . . . (Basel, 1571); Johannes Messenius [ca. 1579– 1636], Historia suecorum gothorumque, per . . . Ericum Olai . . . concinnata, res commemorans LXVII potentissimorum regum, tertia marique gloriosis-sime gesta, primordio capto ab anno restauratae salutis humanae primo, ad MCDLXIV hoc thema continuans, . . . (Stockholm, 1615).

The composition of the Continued Introduction (1686) took place concurrently with Pufendorf ’s Twenty- six Books of Commentary on Swedish Aff airs (1686), which rested on thorough archival research. Also, his accounts made use of other sources at various points, including William Temple’s Observations upon the United Prov-inces of the Netherlands (London, 1673) at note 39, p. 302, and note 50, p. 308, below.

22. Hieronymus Kromayer [1610– 70], Ecclesia in politia. Id est historiae ecclesias-ticae centuriae XVI . . . (Leipzig, 1666). See Döring’s Introduction to “Brevis com-mentatio . . .” (1675), in Pufendorf (1995), p. 201. Palladini (1984) shows also that Pufendorf ’s account relied on Guicciardini.

23. Marco Antonio de Dominis [1560– 1624], De republica ecclesiastica libri X (Heidelberg, 1618); and Paolo Sarpi [1552– 1623], Petri Suavis Polani [pseud.] historiae Tridentini libri octo: ex Italicis summa fi de ac cura Latini facti, editio quinta & ultima (Gorinchem, 1658). Also see Pufendorf ’s letter to Thomasius (December 30, 1688), in Pufendorf (1996), 158, pp. 235– 36, where Pufendorf comments on the proper

xvi editor’s introduction

duction relies on other authors mainly for the older, distant histories of individual states, but as the respective accounts approached his own time Pufendorf made more use of his own experience and research; for here, according to Ludwig, he held “the chief place.”

The fi nal sections of each chapter, which were termed “politick remarks” or “politische Anmerckungen” by later authors, are of spe-cial note. Comprising Pufendorf ’s “Observations . . . concerning the good and bad Qualifi cations of each Nation, . . . as also what concerns the Nature, Strength and Weakness of each Country, and its form of Government”—a kind of political commentary already found in The Present State of Germany —they applied the Preface’s distinctions about diff erent types of state’s interest (ratio status) to the peculiar form and condition of each country. Pufendorf was not the fi rst to off er a history of individual European states as such, and others had lectured on the topic before, including Hermann Conring (1606– 81) at Helm-stedt and Johann Andreas Bose (1626– 74), professor of history at Jena (since 1656) with whom Pufendorf was personally acquainted. There

way to write ecclesiastical history and suggests that the results will diff er in the case of a theologian and an honest man.

24. Ludwig, “Eulogium” (1721), p. 481.25. Preface, p. 7. Note that Pufendorf refers to such observations “as are generally

made” in this regard, suggesting that the approach was not new or unique to him. See note 57, p. xxiv, below.

26. See chapter VI on the form, and chapter VII on the strength and diseases, of the German Empire.

27. Hammerstein (1972), p. 239; Döring (1992b), pp. 159– 60, note 473; and Va-lera (1986), 119– 43, especially 122– 26. Bose studied with Johann Heinrich Boecler (at Strassburg), a leading German Tacitist, before returning to Leipzig and then Jena, where he would have met Pufendorf. His Introductio generalis in notitiam rerum publicarum orbis universi. Accedunt eiusdem dissertationes de statu Europae . . . ( Jena 1672, though based on lectures held already in 1662) is considered an early example of what became, in the eighteenth century, the science of Statistik, a historical and empirical study of individual states similar to that of Pufendorf in the Introduc-tion. Conring had lectured on such topics already in 1660, also under the title of “notitia rerum publicarum.” These lectures were issued against his will by two stu-dents in 1668, and they appeared at Geneva in 1675 under the title Thesaurus rerum publicarum totius orbis. See Behnen (1987), p. 77, note 3, and p. 83; and Pasquino (1986), especially p. 163, note 64, and pp. 164– 65, note 70. Achenwall—one of the

editor’s introduction xvii

were also contemporary analyses of Europe in terms of state’s interest, such as Petrus Valckenier’s Das verwirrte Europa (1677) and Christian Widemann’s Academia status (1681). The “new moment” in Pufen-dorf ’s approach was the emphasis on modern history and, especially in these sections, the concrete assessment of individual states and their external relations in terms of a normative notion of interest rooted in his natural law theory. That is, it was the unusual combination of Pufendorf ’s philosophical theory of the state with his practical observa-tions of contemporary political aff airs that gave the work its pull.

Like many of Pufendorf ’s other works, the Introduction was well re-ceived and soon translated into other European languages (see Appen-dix 1, Publication History, p. 603). According to Ludwig (1695/ 1700), it gained many adherents (Liebhaber) and served as a “manual in history” for almost everyone. Siebenkäs (1790) also referred to its popular, handbook status and noted its “important infl uence on the teaching of history,” to which it had given “a new direction.” Brockwell (1702) considered it one of Pufendorf ’s “most Compleat and Perfect Pieces” and called him a “prophet” on the basis of its political analyses. The Dedication of Etienne de la Chambre’s (Bruzen de la Martinière’s) grand 1721 French revision of the Introduction describes it as “the chief

eighteenth- century inheritors of this tradition—explicitly traced the origin of the term Statistik to the Italian notion of ragio di stato. More generally on the study of history at Protestant universities in Germany, see Scherer (1927), pp. 135– 213; Böde-ker (1986); and Boockmann (1987). Also see p. xxiv, note 57, below, and Appendix 1, p. 603, note 3.

28. Meinecke (1925), pp. 287– 88, note 3. Petrus Valckenier, Das verwirrte Europa. Oder, politische und historische Beschreibung, der in Europa . . . seither dem Jahre 1664 entstandenen . . . Kriegen, und leidigen Empörungen, nebenst deroselben Ursachen und Gründen, . . . in vier Teilen (Amsterdam, 1677; the German edition); and Christian Widemann, Academia status, ad status Europae cognoscendos ( Jena, 1681). Niceron (1732), pp. 165ff ., lists many other works on Europe (under Universal- Historie) in the early eighteenth century.

29. Hammerstein (1972), p. 240.30. Ludwig (1700), Preface, p. 19.31. Siebenkäs (1790), p. 52.32. Brockwell, Preface, in Pufendorf (1976).

xviii editor’s introduction

work of a wise man who is regarded as the oracle of politicians.” These and other estimations were not confi ned to those with a vested inter-est in the work, such as its translators, editors, and commentators, but they also issued from the new scholarly journals in which Pufendorf ’s works, including his histories, were often reviewed. Two such reviews are of particular note since Pufendorf replied to them in print—with his fi ctive “Two Letters . . . to Adam Rechenberg” (Epistolae duae . . . ad Adamum Rechenbergium, 1688). The fi rst appeared in the Journal des Savants, where the Abbé de La Rocque made minor corrections to Pufendorf ’s account—in Twenty- six Books of Commentary on Swedish Aff airs (1686)—of France’s role during the Thirty Years’ War, evoking from the latter (in his fi rst “letter”) not only a complaint about La Rocque’s pro- French and pro- Catholic bias but also some valuable observations on the writing of history. The second, by Jean Le Clerc in the Bibliotheque universelle et historique, focused directly (via Cra-mer’s 1688 Latin translation) on Pufendorf ’s Introduction, particularly its comments about religious freedom in the United Provinces (chapter VI). This initial exchange with Le Clerc about the appropriate degree of religious toleration in a state continued with the latter’s response to Pufendorf ’s “Two Letters,” and with Pufendorf ’s The Divine Feudal Law (1695), which Le Clerc also reviewed some years later.

33. Dedication, in Pufendorf (1721), vol. 1.34. See the Reviews section of the Bibliography, pp. 647, and also Zurbuchen

(1991), pp. 180– 82; Palladini (1978), pp. 64– 66; and Döring, in Pufendorf (1995), p. 462, note 43, and p. 467, note 59.

35. See Pufendorf (1995), pp. 488– 506.36. Abbé Jean- Paul de La Rocque, in Journal des Savants 15 (1687), pp. 112–

20; see Döring’s Introduction to Pufendorf ’s Epistolae duae, in Pufendorf (1995), pp. 460– 67.

37. See VI.21, p. 308, and note 61, p. 178, below. Le Clerc reviewed Cramer’s 1688 Latin translation of the Introduction in his Bibliotheque universelle 7 (1687), pp. 205– 11. On background, see Döring’s Introduction to “Epistolae duae,” in Pufendorf (1995), pp. 467– 71. Also see Appendix 2 in this book, p. 625, note 15.

38. Jean Le Clerc, Bibliotheque universelle 12 (1689), pp. 472– 86. Le Clerc re-viewed Pufendorf ’s The Divine Feudal Law in Bibliotheque choisie 7 [1705], p. 392. See Döring’s Introduction to “Epistolae duae,” in Pufendorf (1995), p. 467, note 59, and p. 477, note 80.

editor’s introduction xix

Pufendorf as Historiographer

What reviewers like Le Clerc, Rechenberg, Bayle, and (Henri) Basnage de Beauval appreciated about Pufendorf ’s historical writing matched his own assessment of what mattered. Most important was the reli-ance on documentation and fi rst- hand reports, rather than hearsay or speculation. As royal historiographer in Stockholm and Berlin, Pufen-dorf made thorough use of the archives to which he had privileged access. He also travelled in Europe to obtain source materials, and he attempted sometimes to obtain important records through personal connections—even from parties otherwise unlikely to provide them, such as the court of Rome. Indeed, Pufendorf ’s principled reliance on archival materials—that is, his writing of “public” rather than “private” history—sometimes provoked complaints that he had revealed state secrets and led to censorship of certain works for this reason. Other commendations of Pufendorf ’s historiographical method noted his avoidance of speculation about the motives of historical actors, and his self- limitation to what he took to be the implications of the docu-mentary evidence. Moreover, it was said, he did not ascribe malicious motives to the adversaries of those who had commissioned his works,

39. For more details on individual reviewers’ comments, see Piirimäe (2008), pp. 246– 48, and Piirimäe (unpublished manuscript), pp. 15– 16, and 11– 12.

40. On Pufendorf ’s work in the archives, see his letters to the Austrian council-lor Johann Friedrich von Seilern (March 5, 1690), in Pufendorf (1996), 175, p. 262, ll. 34– 35; and to Landgraf Ernst von Hessen- Rheinfels (mid- November 1690), 194, pp. 293– 94, ll. 12– 14; on his gathering of materials at Cassel, to von Hessen- Rheinfels (March 29, 1690), 176, p. 264, ll. 23– 30; and on his approaches to Christina, Salzer (1904), p. 6, note 15.

41. Moraw (1962), p. 173.42. On the posthumous censorship of Pufendorf ’s Nineteen Books on the Achieve-

ments of Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg (1695), see Adlemansthal [Dahlmann] (1710), 42, pp. 786– 87, and 43, p. 795; Seidler (1997), p. 215; and Palladini (2003) and—for Leibniz’s role—(1999b). On Swedish attempts to censor or control Pufendorf ’s work, see Piirimäe (unpublished manuscript), pp. 11– 13. Some Swedes were upset by Pufendorf ’s ethnographic characterization of them in the Continued Introduction (1686), which was summarized by Crull in XIII.18. See p. 599, and note 40, in the text below, and also note 57 in the Editor’s Introduction.

xx editor’s introduction

and he left moral judgment about events to the reader. In Tacitean fash-ion (sine studio et ira: “without bias or malice,” Annals I.1), he sought explicitly to avoid interpolating personal emotion or prejudice into his accounts.

By avoiding both “the writing of falsehoods and the concealment of truths” the historian is distinguished, so Pufendorf, from a fabulist and a fl atterer. His role also diff ers from those of an advocate (lawyer) and a judge. The former is essentially a special pleader or propagandist for his clients, seeking in every way to advance their cause, even by distort-ing the record; while the latter presumes to render verdicts from an acontextual or disinterested meta- perspective, a view from nowhere, as it were. The historian, instead, should describe things as he fi nds them and leave judgment to the reader. However, this does not preclude the expression of a particular view. On the contrary, as Pufendorf somewhat misleadingly observed, a historian also plays the tune of the one who pays or feeds him, and so (the former) Queen Christina’s complaint (at Rome) that his account of Sweden’s involvement in the Thirty Years’ War had displeased Catholics was to him “ridiculous.” What he meant by such statements was better expressed, perhaps, by two other similes: the historian as secretary or architect who fashions a literary or physical edifi ce for a ruler by using the latter’s own materials and plans. Thus, two historians can write “. . . the history of two hostile princes . . . with the same appearance of truth [pari specie], as long as each adjusts him-self to the opinions, impressions, and interests of his own prince.” In-deed, Pufendorf remarked, waxing autobiographical, the same skillful individual can write both histories, build the same information into both accounts, and even have one borrow from the other, as long as the general perspectives are diff erent. In fact, this describes his own histo-ries of Frederick William and Charles Gustav, respectively, and to some

43. In his posthumous Seven Books of Commentary on the Aff airs of Charles Gus-tav, King of Sweden (Pufendorf [1696]), I.1, p. 5, Pufendorf says that “the only com-mendation I expect for my work from reasonable people is that I have drawn it honestly from reliable sources, without any admixture of emotion or prejudice.”

editor’s introduction xxi

extent the various accounts in the Introduction, where the same events are treated in the context of diff ering national histories.

Historically, the early modern historiographer was situated between two more general or (apparently) less partial roles: that of the so-called universal (or salvation) historian and that of later, more disaffi liated historians purporting to work only for the party of humanity. Despite clear continuities with the classical, “rhetorical” tradition that high-lighted virtuous exemplars and ideal types, his own accounts were “pragmatic” in the sense of focusing on the concrete interconnected-ness of actual events. In fact, the historiographer’s role evolved along with its subject matter, which was the early modern states and rulers in need of legitimating narratives to maintain their internal sovereignty, external independence, and relative claims upon one another. Arising in the late fi fteenth and sixteenth centuries, in Iberia and Italy, the formal offi ce of royal historiographer moved gradually from there into northern Europe, where it culminated in the seventeenth century to-gether with the process of state- building. Despite or perhaps because of its overt nationalistic function, the role was international in charac-ter. That is, not only was it shared or iterated in many states, which had their own historiographers, but it also became professionalized or bu-reaucratized, with the individuals fi lling it often switching their employ like diplomats, soldiers, and other state offi cers. Most signifi cantly, historiographers’ works were mainly aimed at an international audi-ence, including a state’s or ruler’s antagonists. In Pufendorf ’s terms, the

44. For detailed supporting references for ideas in this paragraph, see Seidler (1997).

45. See Meinecke (1925), pp. 293 and 300– 301.46. There is much in Pufendorf ’s dedications and prefaces about the exemplary

value of history. See Seidler (1997), pp. 209– 10.47. See Reill (1975), pp. 41– 43, and Krieger (1965), pp. 172– 73, for the distinction

and the evolving meaning of “pragmatic.” Martinière’s “Avertissement” to Pufendorf (1721) refers to the Introduction as a new kind of “universal history.” Also see Simo-netti (1746), in Blanke (1991).

48. Piirimäe (unpublished manuscript), pp. 2–8, and (2008), pp. 242–44; Moraw (1962), p. 166.

49. Meinecke (1925), p. 299.

xxii editor’s introduction

historiographer was a kind of “public interpreter” whose task it was to lay before the world the case of the political actors he represented and to defend their claims and policies in terms of rational and moral criteria. The crucial and, perhaps, paradoxical assumption was that this could be done without sacrifi cing truth.

History, Natural Law, and Interest

By recording, portraying, and analyzing political agency as such (as exhibited in the diplomacy, negotiations, treaties, alliances, and other strategic decision- making that were Pufendorf ’s main concern), history facilitated the extension of natural law reasoning from individuals to the collectives that they comprised or represented. And by articulating the concrete interests of competing states, it allowed their association with the obligations of rulers, thereby linking international to natural law, and politics to morality. This seems to be the meaning of the state-ment in the “Eloge historique” prefi xed to the 1753 French edition of the Introduction: that without history, On the Law of Nature and of Nations would have been nothing but “abstract speculation,” and that Pufendorf composed the Introduction as a guide for young people so that they would not be misled by the theoretical treatise. Of course, the Introduction and other works were not simple, textbook applica-tions of the latter’s principles. Still, they were presumed to be consistent with these in the same way that Pufendorf ’s historical knowledge about political aff airs, both ancient and modern, gave substance and intel-ligibility to the natural law theory that it in a sense generated. That is, the theory not only emerged from practice as depicted in history, but it also guided it in turn.

The prime directive of Pufendorf ’s natural law theory, the law of sociality, enjoins humans “inasmuch as [they] can, [to] cultivate and maintain toward others a peacable sociality that is consistent with the

50. Letter to von Seilern (March 5, 1690), in Pufendorf (1996), 175, p. 262, l. 49.51. “Eloge historique,” p. xiv, in Pufendorf (1753). The “Eloge” is an expanded

version of the “Mémoires” prefi xed to Pufendorf (1721), where the same observation is made.

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